"New Technologies ... Can Make the True and the False Interchangeable"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation
of the address Benedict XVI gave today to participants of
the World Press Congress, which ended today in Rome. The
event was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

I receive you with joy at the end of the
four days of intense work promoted by the Pontifical Council
for Social Communications and dedicated to the Catholic press. I
cordially greet all of you -- coming from 85 countries
-- who work in newspapers, weeklies or in other periodicals
and Internet sites. I greet the president of the dicastery,
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, whom I thank for giving voice
to the sentiments of all, as well as the secretaries,
the under-secretary and all the officials and staff. I am
happy to be able to address a word of encouragement
to you to continue, with renewed motivations, your important and
qualified work.

The world of the media is going
through a profound transformation also within itself. The development of
the new technologies and, in particular, widespread multimedia, seems to
call into question the role of the more traditional and
consolidated media. Appropriately, your conference pauses to consider the specific
role of the Catholic press. A careful reflection on this
field, in fact, brings up two particular aspects: on one
hand the specificity of the means -- the press, that
is, the written word and its timeliness and efficacy, in
a society which has seen antennas, satellite dishes and satellites
multiply, becoming almost the emblem of a new way of
communicating in the era of globalization. And the other point,
the connotation "Catholic," with the responsibility that derives from it
to be faithful in an explicit and substantial way, through
the daily commitment to follow the masterful way of truth.

The search for truth must be pursued by Catholic
journalists with a passionate mind and heart, but also with
the professionalism of competent staff who are equipped with adequate
and effective means. This is even more important in the
present historical moment, which asks of the figure itself of
the journalist, as mediator of the flow of information, to
undertake a profound change. Today, for example, the world of
the image with the development of ever new technologies has
ever greater weight in communication. But if on one hand
this entails undoubtedly positive aspects, on the other hand, the
image can also become independent of reality; it can give
life to a virtual world, with several consequences, the first
of which is the risk of indifference to truth.

In
fact, the new technologies, together with the progress they entail,
can make the true and the false interchangeable; they can
induce one to confuse the real with the virtual. Moreover,
the recording of an event, joyful or sad, can be
consumed as a spectacle and not as an occasion for
reflection. The search for the paths of an authentic promotion
of man then takes second place, because the event is
presented primarily to arouse emotions. These aspects sound like an
alarm bell: They invite consideration of the danger that the
virtual draws away from reality and does not stimulate the
search for the true, for the truth.

In this
context, the Catholic press is called, in a new way,
to express to the heights its potential and to give
a reason day in and day out for its mission
that can never be given up. The Church has a
facilitating element, since the Christian faith has in common with
communication a fundamental structure: the fact that the means and
the message coincide; indeed, the Son of God, the Incarnate
Word, is at the same time message of salvation and
means through which salvation is realized. And this is not
a simple concept, but a reality accessible to all, also
those who while living as protagonists in the complexity of
the world, are capable of preserving the intellectual honesty proper
to the "little ones" of the Gospel. Moreover the Church,
Mystical Body of Christ, present at the same time everywhere,
nourishes the capacity of more fraternal and more human relations,
being a place of communion among believers and, at the
same time, a sign and instrument of everyone´s vocation to
communion. Her strength is Christ, and in his name she
"pursues" man on the roads of the world to save
him from the "mysterium iniquitatis," insidiously operating in him. The
Catholic press evokes more directly, as compared to other means
of communication, the value of the written word. The Word
of God has come to men and has been given
to us also through a book, the Bible. The word
continues to be the fundamental instrument and, in a certain
sense, the constitutive instrument of communication: It is used today
under various forms, and in the so-called civilization of the
image it also keeps its entire value.

From these
brief considerations, it seems evident that the communicative challenge is,
for the Church and for all those who share her
mission, very involved. Christians cannot ignore the crisis of faith
that has come to society, or simply trust that the
patrimony of the values transmitted in the course of past
centuries can continue inspiring and shaping the future of the
human family. The idea of living "as if God didn´t
exist" has shown itself to be deadly: The world needs,
rather, to live "as if God existed," even if it
does not have the strength to believe; otherwise it will
only produce an "inhuman humanism."

My very dear brothers
and sisters, whoever works in the media, if he does
not wish to be "a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1) -- as Saint Paul would say
-- must have well-rooted in himself the underlying option that
enables him to deal with the things of the world
placing God always at the top of the scale of
values. The times we are living through -- despite having
a notable positive weight, because the threads of history are
in God´s hands and his eternal design is ever more
revealed -- are also marked by many shadows. Your task,
dear members of the Catholic press, is to help contemporary
man to orient himself to Christ, only Savior, and to
keep burning the flame of hope in the world, to
live worthily our today and to build the future appropriately.

Because of this I exhort you to constantly renew your
personal choice for Christ, drinking from those spiritual resources that
the worldly mentality underestimates, despite the fact they are valuable,
more than that, indispensable. Dear friends, I encourage you to
continue in your endeavor that is not easy, and I
accompany you with my prayer, so that the Holy Spirit
will always make it fruitful. My blessing, full of affection
and gratitude, which I am pleased to impart, intends to
embrace all of you here present and all those who
work in the Catholic press worldwide.